How To Appear In The People Also Ask Box

Are you getting fewer clicks to your website from your organic search ranking? Here’s what you can do about your SEO right now.

SERPS, or search engine results pages, have slowly filled with Google AdWords, featured snippets, and local packs (those pops-ups with a map and a listing of 3 local businesses along with name, address, hours, and contact information that you get when you type in “____ near me”). You can pay for more AdWords. You can attract attention for the local pack by setting up a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) account. You can get more featured snippets by answering more questions.

Google has expanded its responses to queries to include an answer box called “People Also Ask.” This box contains questions similar to the one you/your website viewer posed. For each question, the user may choose to expand the selection to reveal a quick but thorough answer—the featured snippet—and a link to the website that provides this information and more. The featured snippet itself is what AI (artificial intelligence) like Amazon Alexa or Google Home uses in response to a question.

Focus your efforts. Brainstorm a list that begins with your product or service in broad terms. Consider your target audience and add differentiators like “for children 2-6” or “for women.” Add superlatives like “best” or “strongest” especially if you can prove your product or service qualifies in your target market.

Continue by writing down complete questions your prospective customers might ask. Ask the same question in as many ways as you think are possible. Don’t forget to include those all-important “how to” questions.

For each question, provide an answer that is
• Correct
• Easy to understand
• Free from sales pitches and plagiarism
• High quality
• Relevant to your company
• Short but complete

Be aware that your competition can hijack your featured snippet if you are less clear in your response than they are in theirs. “Call us for a free quote” will not place you in prime position to answer “How much does ___ cost?” A better script reads “A service call is $160. Hourly labor charge, replacement parts, and taxes are extra. No additional charge for Saturday service.”

Once you have created your questions and answers, you can use them on your website as
• Blog posts where you pose the question and answer with step-by-step instructions, a bulleted list, or a short concise paragraph, any of which could easily become a featured snippet, and then provide additional details to establish your authority
• FAQs for your Frequently Asked Questions page
• The key question and answer for a web page containing those specific keywords as the page title (repeated multiple times for different questions)

You don’t have to do this alone. Tate Design can develop copy, oversee content marketing, and then provide web analytics. Call us at 610.725.0702 or e-mail [email protected] to get started with questions and answers for the People Also Ask box.